Computer systems are often employed in monitoring and administering other systems such as other computers and/or machines. Monitoring and administering systems generally enable administrators to troubleshoot problems that have occurred with other computers and machines, and can aid in determining status and/or health of such computer systems and machines before problems occur. In many cases, information is sent from one computer system to another to enable monitoring, administering, and troubleshooting. For example, information is often sent over a serial port from a computer being monitored to a second computer that displays the information. The information can be in the form of display text (e.g., “Fatal system error”, “Memory low”) and can include other information such as formatting information that may affect, control and/or position the display text.
Many computer systems send text in combination with formatting information over a communications link, such as the serial port, in order to display status and/or other computer system information. The formatting information is often employed to position and/or format the text on a display screen, for example. Text information may be utilized to communicate status to an operator from the computer system, wherein the status may be related to system operations, system output, numerical information, and/or error information. Unfortunately, if the operator is not viewing the display as the information or message stream is sent, the information may not be acted upon. Even having an automated process monitor the message stream may not be sufficient because the formatting and message information sent are generally designed for human consumption and may be ambiguous to a monitoring computer. If hundreds or thousands of such displays require monitoring, valuable system information may likely be lost.
This problem is especially prevalent during system crashes and related error conditions since human response time is very slow and costly during catastrophes. When the operator attempts to check a plurality of displays in order to perform troubleshooting or maintenance, it is cumbersome, time consuming, and often fruitless to discern what caused the system problem. Since many displays and associated data buffers are checked manually, a problem arises in relation to human interpretation of events leading up to a system failure and reacting systematically according to the interpretation.
It may be desirable to send error information along with the formatted data, however, in order to record vital system and status information that is not associated with the display information. Unfortunately, if additional data were merely integrated with the formatted data, expected display presentations may likely be interfered with. For example, the formatted data may include text fields such as “Time” and “Date” wherein each field includes an associated formatting sequence to guide the position/format of the text fields on the display screen. If additional data were included along with the formatted data, either the display fields and/or related formatting sequences may likely be affected. Thus, the display may improperly present the content of the text fields and/or format related thereto. Furthermore, if the display text were monitored by a subsequent machine, an improper analysis may occur and thus cause unpredictable actions.
In view of the above problems associated with conventional computers and monitoring systems, there is an unsolved need for a system and/or methodology to facilitate transmission of information over an existing protocol without disrupting functionality associated therewith.